How It Could Happen
by Imaginarivalued
Summary: The showdown between Naruto and Sasuke. Take two.
1. Chapter 1

Rain poured in roaring waves, encasing the entire village, Konoha, in nature's coldness.

Two figures stood above the Hokage's tower, which was heavily damaged and thus unstable.

The roof in which the two figures stood upon was slanted, hence the figure with

They remained unmoving for minutes and beyond, each studying the other person with piercing eyes and in unwavering stances.

The color of one pair of eyes was sky blue, and the other, obsidian black.

But as the moments passed, the pair of black eyes…twirled…and spun……until only the red tomoes of the sharingan remained.

The pair of blue eyes narrowed. "Sasuke……………is this what you really want?"

The Uchiha maintained his apathetic gaze. "This is what the Uchiha clan wanted."

The other teen growled fiercely. "I didn't ask what your stupid clan wanted! I asked if **this**……" he waves his arm sideways, gesturing to the damaged village below, "……is what you wanted."

"Like I said, it's what the Uchiha clan wanted."

The teen with the blue eyes growled again.

Uchiha Sasuke only replied by looking down at the

"Teme! Would you stop thinking about what your clan wanted and think about what you want! What your brother wanted!"

The raven-haired teen glared at the blonde slightly. "What Itachi wanted…….was a dream that withered in the face of reality…….a vision, that could never be fulfilled."

"If everything you told me were true, then only thing your brother wanted was peace! What's so wrong with that!? What's so unattainable about that!?"

"Hmph. If you remembered everything I told you, then you should have realized that the Uchiha clan could never coexist with this village. It is the legacy of the Senju clan, as such, destiny dictates that I destroy it for the atrocity that befell my clan."

Naruto, looking angrier by the second, took a heavy step forward. "Dammit! Now you're just sounding like Neji going through puberty! Destiny has nothing to with it! The only thing that matters if your _will_!"

Sasuke's sharingan twirled once. "I didn't expect you to understand, Naruto……you were deadlast for a reason, after all…"

Before the blonde could reply, he continued, "_However_, you, as a person who has personally felt the prejudice of this village for something that was entirely not of your own fault, should at least be able to relate."

Naruto anger dimmed mildly, his eyes losing the previous rage.

Seeing the momentary empathy in the other boy's eyes, Sasuke pressed on. "The entire Uchiha clan was ostracized by Konoha, a village that the Uchihas cofounded alongside the Senju clan. They say that the Uchiha clan betrayed the village……no, it was the village itself that was the traitor."

The teen gritted his teeth. "We were denied our rightful positions in this village! The authority of the police force!? Merely cages to contain us! Who knows how many Hokages could have come from the Uchiha clan if not for this petty jealousy and wariness of our powers! We could have made this village greater than it is! Konoha could have been the greatest village in the world if it were led by the Uchihas!"

Sasuke's voice lowered. "And now…the only way for the Uchiha clan to reclaim its former glory, is to destroy its past mistake. Konoha is that mistake……so I will destroy—"

"YOU'RE WRONG!!" Naruto shouted, his face downcast, interrupting the Uchiha avenger, whose eyes narrowed at the outburst.

"I agree that the Uchiha clan was wrongly accused! You're right about me being able to relate! Who knows how many times I cursed the villagers when I was a kid! Even now, I still have to endure the cold stares of people who I pass by on the way just to the market! I can't buy anything without being charged unfairly! And just because someone is my friend, they are almost automatically labeled as a demon follower! This village is full of discriminatory assholes that deserve the worst to happen to them!!"

He looked toward the raven-haired teen, pained eyes glimmering. "But then there was the Old Man Sandaime…..and then there was Iruka-sensei……Ichiraku-ojisan and Ayame-neechan."

He looked down again, with a bitter smile. "Then came along Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, and…….," he looked back up, "……and you."

He chuckled. "It doesn't stop there. Fuzzy Brows, Neji, Tenten-san, Ino-chan, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba-inu, Hinata-chan, Shino, Gaara, Sai, Tsunade-baachan, Shizune-neechan, Ero-Sennin……"

He laughed. "I don't even remember when I got so many precious people."

Naruto paused slightly before meeting Sasuke's eyes. "So I can't hate this village. I know for a fact that everyone can eventually become my precious people."

He frowned. "And if what you said were all true, then no Uchiha could have ever become Hokage. They did not think of this village as their family, merely an enemy they had to destroy."

The Uchiha teen's eyes narrowed, but did not retort.

"That's why I want to become the Hokage. This village is my family, and I want to protect everyone in it. But it's not just my family, it's also yours. Even if you hate everyone else in it……Kakashi-sensei, Sakura-chan, and me……we're still here. Shouldn't that…count for something?"

The Uchiha teen did not answer. But his eyes…looked almost sorrowful.

"Naruto…….," the raven-haired teen began, "all those years ago, I meant what I said. You were my best friend. And there might be a chance we can still be friends. You do not have to join me……merely, move aside."

The blonde jinchuuriki looked pleasantly surprised for a brief moment before he bitterly shook his head. "You know I can't do that, Sasuke. I have to protect my precious people. It is my _will of the fire_."

Only the sound of the lessening rain remained, as minutes of silence trickled by.

Finally, Naruto beseeched his rival once more. "I'll ask one more time……what does your _will of the fire_ want?"

Sasuke's sharingan pulsed, after a long moment. "I have no will of the _fire_. My will……is the will of the Uchiha."

"That's it, huh?" Naruto muttered sardonically.

Unsheathing his katana, Uchiha Sasuke slipped into a battle stance. "…………I'll make it painless."

Pained, Naruto also assumed battle ready. "I promise you, this won't be the end. I'll protect Konoha……and I'll save you, Sasuke. That is my _will_."

The epic showdown between the two shinobi whose lives were cruelly intertwined by fate was about to begin.

Uchiha Sasuke's ultimate sharingan pulsed strongly, a malevolent aura surrounding him.

Uzumaki Naruto's blue eyes sharpened, bright blue chakra poured forth as he prepared for the inevitable fight.

But Naruto had forgotten something, something of incredible importance. He had forgotten that Itachi had "lent" him some of his powers. And so as he drew forth his chakra, the power Itachi gave him surfaced and—

Naruto shot a huge red beam from his eyes.

Sasuke's head exploded.

Headless, the Uchiha's body flopped onto the roof, blood gushing from the neck.

Naruto blinked in several moments of mortified confusion before he gripped his head in panic.

"Oh SHIT! Sakura-chan is gonna **KILL** me!!"

**END**

AN: Should I just start writing longer and actually serious Naruto fics? I mean, writing intense stuff before the punchline is getting tiring.


	2. Chapter 2

_Rasengan!_

_Chidori!_

Bright, all encompassing light of power……and the distant pyre of memories long past.

Neither of the two teens, heckled by fate, knew how long they stared at each other and all that which passed between them in the light, but both understood that the impending darkness of reality would spiral in soon enough.

And so, Uzumaki Naruto spoke.

"You know…how everyone in the village used to hate me," he said, feeling his stomach, and all within, "Because of the Kyuubi inside me."

He looked at the other sadly, and smiled. "And I used to hate them all, too. There were times I wanted revenge. One misstep, and maybe I would've become the same as you, arriving at such a horrible conclusion."

The blonde teen's smile tightened, and his eyes gazed downward as he reflected upon the past. "I thought I had no connection with anyone. Until I met you and Iruka-sensei."

The dark-haired teen continued to stare at him impassively, involuntarily silent.

He scratched his head sheepishly. "I knew you were always alone. And I was relieved there was someone else like me…I wanted to talk to you right away. For some reason, I was really happy."

His hand lowered, and his smile became warmer. "But I didn't. I was jealous because you were a genius who could do anything…so I decided you would be my rival!"

He looked at the other. "I wanted to be like you. I finally had some connections. As we fulfilled our duties as Team Seven…I was always trying my best to be as strong and cool as you were."

There was a pause. Or perhaps more.

However many there were, when the moments ended, the blonde teen smiled……

"I'm really glad to have met you."

……and Uchiha Sasuke was reminded of the sun he turned his back on.

He couldn't see that well though, not anymore. And he decided to pretend it was a misperception entirely of his own. "Naruto…nothing you say can change my mind now."

His eyes narrow, and darken. "I am going to kill you and everyone in the village…!"

His fingers tighten. "Your only choices are to kill me and be the hero who protects the village, or to be killed, and become a complete loser!"

Naruto closed his eyes, perhaps in contemplation, perhaps resigned, but when he reopens them, they are burning with the _will_ of his choice.

"I won't be a loser! And I won't be the hero who kills you either! I won't choose either!"

As the light passed and time resumed its trek, the battle that began a mere flash ago rumbled and soared.

_I will………_

* * *

**_BANG!!!_**

The water surface and much of its body exploded as the sheer force of the chakra from the clash of the two techniques collided.

Both Kakashi and Sakura (who was more lamenting about the ineffectualness of her gender and seriously considering either going through a sex-change or start playing for the other team—that girl who was bleeding all over the place she just saved might be a plausible candidate to start with—rather than concerned with the fight) gasped at the magnitude in which the battle started.

Sasuke flipped in midair and planted his feet on the side of the bridge, unsheathing his katana simultaneously.

He watched Naruto perform the same maneuver, except the teen skidded to a halt using the surface of the water, blue eyes blazing, never wavering from his, and he wondered, briefly, how is that despite how blurred the world was becoming for him, that irritable blue would always shine through.

He gritted his teeth. "This ends now, Naruto. And it will end how I want it."

Naruto smirked. "No, Sasuke……this won't end yet. And it'll begin not the way you want." He raised his hands, and made the ram sign.

The Uchiha launched himself, not unlike a rocket, straight at the blonde, blade raised and intents deadly.

"NARUTO!!" Kakashi and Sakura cried, as people on the sidelines are wont to do.

Time seemed to slow again, as the speeding tip of the blade inched itself into the chest……then into the heart.

Naruto coughed. There was blood in his breath, but he smiled………

"………………hey, Sasuke…………………………"

Sasuke stared past the other boy, their heads already side by side, eyes vacant and bloodier, but listening, if only for the very last time.

"………………………………SURPRISE BUTT-SEX."

………and then popped into smoke.

Sasuke blinked.

He swung around wildly just as another Naruto emerged from the water.

"NEVER AGAIN!" the Uchiha roared as he went to decapitate the approaching menace.

"I know how you feel, Sasuke," Kakashi commented quietly, while Sakura shuddered……then shuddered for an entirely different reason.

Before he could finish the strike, Sasuke heard the words, from behind, of which he would despise with all the fiber in his cellular structure, his mortal soul, his very being.

_"OPTION THREE: A THOUSAND YEARS OF PAIN, ENHANCED!!!"_

Sasuke _flew_.

The scream was heard by his brother in the afterlife.

Itachi sighed. _You deserved that, little brother._

And his eyes were bleeding for reasons other than abusing the sharingan.

He also seemed to have gained a rear appendage.

Sakura looked down at her empty hand. "When did Naruto……?"

Kakashi folded his arms, and nodded sagely. "Always remember to look behind the underneath." He looked thoughtful, "By the way, that was a poisoned kunai, wasn't it?"

Sakura hoho'ed.

Karin giggled up blood.

Naruto pumped his arm. "Dattebayo!"

Sasuke suffered what in the end was decided to be laceration and a really bad rash, and had to go through dozens of various physical (and mental) therapies.

He got better, though. Kind of.

* * *

AN: Seriously, though, this manga sucks. Excuse me while I go read FMA and be genuinely impressed.


End file.
